SEATTLE– JP Crawford hit Jonatan Clase with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Seattle Mariners a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.
A pitching-dominated game ended with Crawford lifting a ball to deep right field, which allowed Clase to run home and give the Mariners victories in the first three games of the four-game series with their AL West rival.
The winning streak came after dominant opening pitches from Houston’s Justin Verlander and Seattle’s George Kirby. Verlander allowed one run, three hits and struck out nine in seven innings; Kirby allowed one run, six hits and struck out eight in six innings.
“That’s as good as it gets in this league, in any league, Verlander and George going back and forth,” Seattle coach Scott Servais said. “It was fun to watch when George was there. It wasn’t as fun to watch when Verlander was there. It was one of those games where you have to figure out a way to win.”
The bullpens were equally strong. Trent Thornton, Gabe Speier, Austin Voth and Andrés Muñoz allowed a base runner with six strikeouts in three innings. Mike Baumann (2-0) retired the Astros in order in the top of the 10th on two fly outs and Jose Altuve’s groundout.
But Houston’s Tayler Scott (1-2) couldn’t achieve the same success. Dominic Canzone grounded out to second base to open the 10th, allowing Clase – the automatic runner – to advance to third. Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley walked to load the bases and Crawford threw an 0-1 pitch deep enough for Clase to score.
“Finish the game, get the job done and let’s go home,” Crawford said. “Take a good shot, don’t miss. And luckily, I didn’t lose.”
Seattle missed a chance to win in the ninth, but Julio Rodríguez was stranded at third base after Josh Hader struck out Ryan Bliss and Mitch Haniger.
Verlander was nearly perfect, giving up just Canzone’s fifth home run of the season with one out in the fifth inning. Canzone’s home run was his second since coming off the injured list two weeks ago and traveled about 408 feet on a cold night when the ball struggled to carry.
Verlander has pitched at least seven innings in five consecutive starts against the Mariners in the regular season dating back to the 2022 season.
“They have an excellent rotation, good bullpen. You know it’s going to be a close game,” Verlander said. “If you think you’re going to come in here and score five, six, seven runs a game, I don’t think that’s realistic.”
Kirby gave up Jake Meyers’ RBI single in the fourth inning, but that was all the Astros got.
Kirby struck out eight and pitched at least six innings for the sixth time in seven starts. He has allowed 11 earned runs, struck out 42 and walked just three batters in 36 1/3 innings in six home starts this season.
One of the keys for Kirby was hitting his off-speed pitches early in the game. He also escaped a traffic jam in sixth place, leaving the runners stuck in the corners.
“They are aggressive and can only make you feel uncomfortable. I used a lot of different offspeeds tonight, I thought it worked really well,” said Kirby.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Astros: Manager Joe Espada said RHPs Cristian Javier and José Urquidy are getting additional opinions on right forearm discomfort.
NEXT
Astros: RHP Spencer Arrighetti (2-5, 6.93) allowed three runs in five innings and suffered the loss in his last start against Oakland. Arrighetti never played against Seattle.
Mariners: RHP Logan Gilbert (3-2, 3.06) pitched eight shutout innings against the Astros on May 4 in Houston. Gilbert has allowed three earned runs or less in nine of 11 starts this season.
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